The gorilla who learned to hand over her baby, the king cobra examined without restraint, the tiger paid in goat milk: 2026 AVMA Convention keynote shows what earning animals' trust makes possible

Mark Penning, BVSc, began his keynote at the 2026 AVMA Convention in Anaheim, California, where his story began: South Africa, a country he described as home to a staggering degree of endemism, with nearly two-thirds of its plant species and half the species of reptiles, amphibians, butterflies, freshwater, and marine fish found nowhere else.¹

An explorer at heart, Penning hitchhiked to Zimbabwe as a student, worked on farms for room and board, ran a crocodile hatchery in Botswana, and guided safaris at 4 am while his classmates slept. Penning described watching elephants cross the Kinabatangan River in Borneo, free diving with tiger sharks, and crossing the Drake Passage to see the penguins of Antarctica.

But the moment that redirected his career came in Uganda's Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, face to face with a mountain gorilla. The encounter, which consisted of the gorilla putting his hand over his shoulder, lasted seconds. Yet, what it left behind, he said, was a sense of inadequacy, that he was not doing enough for animals like this one and their habitats.

"It was a life-changing moment," Penning described.

That moment eventually carried him from private practice, where he treated the birds and reptiles other clinicians were reluctant to touch, to leading a bird park, developing a major public aquarium in Durban, and ultimately serving as Disney's vice president of Animals, Science and Environment, overseeing animal care and conservation at Disney's Animal Kingdom, Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge, The Seas with Nemo and Friends at EPCOT, and Disney parks worldwide. Penning, who was recently named director of the North Carolina Zoo after more than a decade leading Disney's animal programs, previously served as CEO of the South African Association for Marine Biological Research and as president of the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

Working with animals, not on them

One of the many messages the keynote conveyed was that animals should thrive, not simply survive.

“The absence of negatives doesn't imply the presence of positives, right?... How can you tell if an animal is thriving rather than simply surviving?” posed Penning. A tiger rolling in grass like a cat on catnip, or a rhino wallowing in muddy water, or a flock of 103 macaws flying together the way they would in the wild, for example, are animals that are thriving in their environment, Penning shared.

The question reflects a shift in how the profession measures welfare. The Five Freedoms—an animal care standard outlining the baseline mental and physical conditions animals should experience under human care—were a significant step, Penning said, but they are all about the absence of negative experiences. His teams instead used the Five Domains model, which assesses an animal's nutrition, environment, health, and behavior through their effect on a fifth domain, the animal's mental state, putting positive experiences on equal footing with the absence of negative ones.

One of the foundations for ensuring animals in the hands of humans are not merely surviving is developing a relationship of trust between the keepers and animals.

If a tiger needs an examination, Penning said, the team could chase it, which is stressful for everyone—or dart it, which is painful, risky, and entirely negative for the animal. And if the results come back bad, it may all have to happen again.

Instead, his teams built relationships of trust with the animals they looked after. In the case of the tiger, they offered the big cat goat milk, which he loved. In exchange, the cat stepped onto a scale, presented its tail for blood draws, and held still for a hand injection when anesthesia was genuinely needed.

The examples kept coming. A silverback gorilla, prone to cardiac disease, participated in his own ultrasound exams, opened his mouth for dental checks, and turned around for blood pressure readings, as long as he got breaks. Kate, a white rhino who needed cataract surgery, was trained (with grapes) to voluntarily accept eye drops up to 4 times a day, allowing a University of Florida ophthalmologist to complete the procedure and restore her sight.

A giraffe allowed the cleaning and filing of its hooves. A manatee rolled over on cue to provide a urine sample. Stingrays and fish stationed for medical exams. There was even a jumping spider who would stand on a laser beam so keepers could clean her habitat.

In another case, Azizi, a hand-reared gorilla, lacked the skills to raise an infant. When she became pregnant, the team reinforced her for carrying a toy doll in a way that would let a baby nurse and trained her to hand the doll over. By the time her baby arrived, she allowed keepers to examine, weigh, and supplement feed the infant. As a result, not only did the baby grow up healthy, but it grew up as a gorilla.

When trust is forged, animals are more likely to participate in their own care voluntarily—more can be achieved without sacrificing the animal’s emotional wellbeing.

"With trust, so much more is possible," he said. “Now these are not tame animals; we don't go in there with them, but they work with us because we are totally predictable to them. They've got no reason to fear what we're doing.”

Don’t try to do things alone

“If you want success in the long term, don’t try to go alone. Go with a great team,” said Penning. The idea of collectivity, too, was woven throughout the talk.

The trained tiger, the participating gorilla, the rhino with restored sight all required teams of keepers, scientists, technicians, and veterinarians working in partnership. When assessing job applicants, Penning said the top qualities his team looked for were humility and the ability to work in a team.

“Knowledge, experience, and expertise—they come later down on the list," he added.

The same principle applied to the problems he could not have solved himself. A king cobra named Elvis, who did not enjoy being handled, making it dangerous to, was trained to enter a clear tube so staff could work with him without stress, restraint, or bites. Sterilizing free-ranging elephant bulls in South Africa, an operation never before attempted, came out of a collaboration with Mark Stetter, DVM, DACZM, now dean of the University of California, Davis School of Veterinary Medicine.

“I learned that when anything looks impossible, talk it through with the smartest people you can, and figure it out,” Penning said.

"When there's a collective vision and a great team and great partners, you can do anything. If you want success in the long term, don't try to go alone. Go with a great team," he continued.

Veterinary professionals can apply lessons from the practice to make a bigger difference in the world

“I want to share some messages with...students...and perhaps the veterinarians who want to really make a difference out there in a way that's slightly different to what you might be doing now,” Penning shared.

Veterinary training prepares professionals for leadership roles most never consider. He offered 14 reasons, among them crisis management, inspiring trust, problem solving without all the pieces, delegation, empathy, and resilience.

“In conclusion, I want to encourage all of you to feel very proud of this amazing profession that you are here. I feel amazingly proud to be a part of it too, and I encourage all of you to be open to new possibilities,” Penning ended. “Think of new ways [on] how you can protect not just the animals immediately around you, but broaden your horizons a little, protect animals and wildlife out there, and feed your soul in the process.”

Reference

1. Penning M. Keynote: Hugged by a mountain gorilla: Embracing the need to protect animals and their habitats Dr. Mark Penning. Presented at: 2026 AVMA Convention; July 11, 2026; Anaheim, CA.